The distress of the female emperor

Wu Zetian, the only female emperor in Chinese history, finally established her own dynasty, the Great Zhou (known in history as the Southern Zhou, to distinguish it from the Zhou Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Dynasty and other dynasties).

In order to ascend to the throne, the empress's preparations are beyond ordinary people's imagination. She became the emperor in 690 AD, 52 years since she first entered the palace as a talent, and 38 years since she returned to the palace for the second time from Ganye Temple. During this time, she tried her best to kill two sons (the crown prince Li Hong and Li Xian), a daughter (in order to frame the queen Wang, she killed the newborn baby girl with her own hands), and at the same time killed hundreds of descendants of the royal family surnamed Li, and thousands of former ministers of the Tang family. At the same time, she also appointed the famous cool officials Zhou Xing/Lai Junchen/Hou Sizhi and others, who were unjustly imprisoned, caused terrorism, and eradicated all opposing voices in order to ascend the throne for herself.

When she first became the emperor, in order to appease the opposition, and I think the empress also has a trace of mother-son affection, after all, the son is much closer to her blood than her nephew. Therefore, Wu Zetian set up his son, the original emperor Li Dan, as the emperor's heir, gave him the surname Wu, and also named the original crown prince Li Chengqi as the emperor's grandson, of course, he also changed his surname to Wu, and then he was relieved to be his own emperor.

But not long after, the empress found that the forces supporting the Tang Dynasty were still very strong, but she didn't dare to come forward directly, but it seemed that there was a group of people surrounding the imperial heir to protect him. This made Wu Zetian feel uneasy and scared, she needed to find out these forces and eradicate them, so she intentionally or unintentionally expressed her fancy to the children of the Wu family, this attitude was received by the people of the Wu family, just like flies staring at eggs with seams, in the second year of Tianzhu (691 AD, the second year of the reign of Empress Wu), there was immediately an opportunist Zhang Jiafu, as a small official like the Fengge Sheren, mobilized Luoyang Wang Qingzhi and hundreds of other people. Emperor Shangshu, please change the title of Wu Chenghei, King of Wei (nephew of Wu Zetian), as the crown prince. After the dismissal, Prime Minister Wu Changqian and Finance Minister Ge Fuyuan came forward to demand the dissolution of the petition group. This time, Wu Zetian found the target, and immediately found an excuse to put the two ministers in prison, and at the same time let Lai Junchen chase and beat him fiercely, and finally killed dozens of people implicated together.

Originally, Wu Zetian had achieved his goal, and the petition group should also accept it when it was good. Unexpectedly, Wu Chengsi didn't figure out his aunt's thoughts, thinking that his aunt just wanted to make himself the prince, so he called the wishing group to continue the activities. As a last resort, the empress had no choice but to let the willing group enter the palace to meet them and ask them: "The emperor's heir Wudan is very good, and he is my son again, why do you want me to depose him?" Wang Qingzhi, the leader of the willing group, replied: "Now that the surname Li is not in the world, how can you let the surname Li be the heir?" The empress wanted to play enough, and it was time to accept it, so she said to the wishing group: "Okay! I have received your comments. I'll study it again, you can retreat first! "I didn't expect Wang Qingzhi to play a scoundrel, lying on the ground, crying bitterly, refusing to leave, this time the emperor had no choice, so he resorted to a delaying tactic, and gave Wang Qingyi a pass (of course, there is a seal), saying that you go first, next time you want to find me at any time you can come again.

After Wang Qingzhi reported to his master. Wu Chengsi thought, aunt is deliberately deposing Li Dan, but she hasn't made up her mind yet, as the saying goes. The martyr was afraid of pestering the man, so I asked them to come to the door a few more times to definitely succeed, so the willing group always took that pass to the palace to find the old lady, and after a long time, the old lady was also annoyed, and wanted to say that they would have a little hard to eat and let them know the difficulties and retreat, so they asked Li Zhaode, the waiter of the Fengge, to beat Wang Qingzhi a few times. Reprimand; Unexpectedly, Li Zhaode has always been a well-hidden proponent of Li, and now he took the chicken feather as an arrow, so he asked someone to beat him hard with a big stick, and beat Wang Qingzhi out of breath in a few strokes, and then reported back to the old lady and said: "I'm sorry, this guy looks sturdy, I didn't expect it to be so unbeaten, and he hung up in a few clicks, I'm sorry for your old age, I'll ask for punishment!" "The old lady has suffered a loss now, and it is not easy to have a seizure, so she has to forget it, as for the willing group, naturally, it is scattered!

Although the empress suffered a loss, but she knew in her heart that the strength of supporting Li could not be ignored, in the second year of longevity (693 AD) at the Luoyang Mingtang sacrifice ceremony, she designated the second echelon of Wei King Wu Chenghei to present sacrifices, Liang Wang Wu Sansi (also Wu Zetian's nephew) third echelon of sacrifices, Li Dan (Wu Dan) is not in the list, this is to let the minister know that this is the dynasty established by the Wu family, everyone don't fight the doctrine of supporting Tang, don't want to oppose me.

But at this time, the Tang Dynasty had been established for more than 50 years, and most of the people and ministers still preferred to think that they were people from the Li Tang Dynasty, and Wu Zetian also knew this, so she was still very suspicious of her son. There will still be a purge if there is a chance. After a secret incident, Li Dan's concubine Liu and Concubine Dou were recruited into the palace, and then disappeared (Concubine Dou is Li Longji's mother, as mentioned earlier in this paragraph); Next, Li Dan's sons were also demoted, such as the emperor's grandson Li Chengqi was demoted to the king of Shouchun, and the other sons were also demoted from the king of one word to the king of two characters (such as Li Longji was demoted from the king of Chu to the king of Linzi), and all of them were placed under house arrest in the palace and could not go out. Later, Li Dan was almost killed by the spies (that is, the section of An Jinzang mentioned above), and it can be said that life was very difficult.

After a few rounds of actions, the empress initially believed that her power had been stabilized, and these actions also made both the pro-Li (Li Xian/Li Dan) and the pro-Wu (Wu Chengsi/Wu Sansi) feel that they could not make too many moves on the table, lest the empress be dissatisfied with herself, so the next few years were relatively peaceful. At this time, the empress began to favor her man, Feng Xiaobao in the front, and Zhang Yizhi/Zhang Changzong brothers, although the empress will still be distressed in her heart to pass on to her son or nephew, but since there is no better way, the empress can only put this matter aside first, and pursue her own ** to forget her troubles.

In the first year of the holy calendar (698 AD), Yongwu Fang established a close relationship with the empress's lover "Erzhang", thinking that the time was ripe, so he began to bring up the old matter again in front of the empress, and once again found someone to remind the empress, "Since ancient times, there has been no one with a different surname as the prince's son of heaven!" At this time, the empress was relatively old (75 years old this year), and she also thought that if she passed on the throne to her son, she might return to Li Tang Tianxia after her death, so she was a little hesitant. At this time, a person came out, and this person was Di Renjie, a detective comparable to Sherlock Holmes in the TV series, who served as a waiter in Luantai (equivalent to the position of deputy inspector general) at this time. After Di Renjie asked "Yuan Fang", he found an occasion where the empress was more happy, and calmly said to the empress, "Your Majesty's world was brought down by Emperor Taizong (Li Shimin) through great hardships. Emperor Xian (Gaozong Li Zhi. Wu Zetian's husband) entrusted his two beloved sons to His Majesty, but now His Majesty plans to hand over the world to outsiders, which may not be in line with the will of God. And the blood relationship between mother and son should be much closer than that between aunts and nephews. If His Majesty passes the throne to his son, then after a thousand autumns, the tablet can be sent to the Taimiao to accompany the first emperor and share the incense. If you pass the throne to your nephew, you haven't heard of your nephew sending your aunt's tablet to Taimiao. "This time, frankly speaking, there is not much new (Li Zhaode has made similar remarks before), but the previous presentation reminded the empress of the love between husband and wife, the relationship between mother and son, and Di Renjie is a talent that the empress values very much (Wu Zetian later called Di Renjie the old man of the country without a name, and when Di Renjie died, he also cried and said, why did God take away my old man so early), so this time I really listened to it. But it was not easy to make a decision at once, so he said, "This is my housework, you don't need to say much." Di Renjie said again: "The Son of Heaven has no family affairs, and I am in a high position, so I dare not mention it." Although the Empress did not make a decision on the spot, she did have some understanding. A few days later, the empress asked Di Renjie, "What do I mean when I dream that a parrot has two wings, all of which are broken?" "Di Renjie is worthy of being a detective, not only can he catch criminals. can also help people interpret dreams, after asking "Yuan Fang", he confidently replied to the empress: "The parrot is Wu, that is, His Majesty." Two wings are your two sons, and if you enable two princes, the wings will be reborn", speaking of which, this is really nonsense, two wings can be two sons. Of course, it can also be two nephews, but Di Renjie's explanation, the empress also accepted it, and in March of that year, she issued an edict to recall Li Xian, who was under house arrest in Fangzhou, and his family.

Not long after, Wu Chenghe, who failed to compete for the crown prince, died of illness in this year (698 AD) under grief, Li Dan gave up the position of the crown prince to his brother Li Xian, a qiē seems to be logical, Li Xian will eventually succeed to the throne, the queen's troubles are solved, and she will continue her ** life, she thinks it should come to the end like this!

But the people who supported Li were not at ease, after the empress began to fall seriously ill in the first year of Shenlong (705 AD), because only Erzhang could serve the decoction in front of the empress, at this time, the ministers of the court were afraid that the empress would change her mind during the illness, and they were also afraid that Erzhang would fake the will, so they made the first move, launched a coup d'état, forced the empress to abdicate early, and killed Erzhang.

The Empress lived under house arrest for the next ten months, what was she thinking about during these ten months? Is it regret or hatred? We can't find out, but before dying, the empress still decided to return to the role of a woman, the role of a wife, and asked to be buried with her husband Li Zhi, and at the same time do not engrave the inscription on the stele, it is a wordless stele, perhaps in the heart of the empress, she has already understood that her shocking life will inevitably bring the world a variety of different views, so let future generations rely on the wordless stele!

The Emperor of the Nest

When Li Longji returned to Chang'an, he was already his uncle Zhongzong Li Xianzai as emperor, it is said that Li Xian looks very much like Tang Taizong Li Shimin, but judging from his appearance, it can be completely different, and it can even be said that he is one of the most famous emperors in the history of the Tang Dynasty. When he took over the throne for the first time (December 683 AD), he wanted to use Empress Wei's father Wei Xuanzhen as his servant, but the minister at that time, Pei Yan, dissuaded him, and he even said: "I want to give the world to Wei Xuanzhen, let alone just a small servant?" After saying such brainless words, his mother immediately found an excuse and said: "The world is not for whomever you want to give, the world is Taizong's hard work, passed on to the first emperor (Li Zhi), and then passed on to you, you say this today, it can be seen that it is not suitable to be an emperor." In this way, Li Xian became emperor for the first time for only two months, and was deposed as the king of Luling, placed under house arrest in Junzhou (Danjiangkou City, Hubei Province), and then transferred to Fangzhou (Fang County, Hubei Province), until the aforementioned more than ten years later, he was recalled to Chang'an, and then regained his position from his mother in a coup d'état in 705, and restored the world of Li Tang.

After Li Xian took over the throne, most of the courtiers and the people had high expectations for him, but Li Xian's expression seemed to disappoint everyone. After taking power, the first step was to reuse Wu Sansi (Wu Zetian's nephew, Wu Zetian once wanted Wu Sansi to succeed to the throne in order to maintain his Zhou Dynasty) and other people from the Wu family (he has forgotten how people framed him in the first place, this is considered to repay grievances with virtue?) Or is it simply stubborn? The second step is to demote the five kings who supported his meritorious service to the place, and it didn't take long to kill them all, and the third step is to let his wife (Empress Wei) and daughter (Princess Anle) work together in politics.

Li Xian doted on his daughter in this way, first of all, in the second year of Shenlong (706 AD), that is, the second year when he became emperor again, he appointed Princess Taiping (Li Xian's sister), Princess Changning, Princess Anle, Princess Yicheng, Princess Xindu, Princess Anding (the above is Li Xian's daughter), Princess Jincheng (Li Xian's niece) Seven princesses set up a princess mansion, which can be appointed to official positions. You can think about it, the princess has no fiefdom and no official position, and the opening of the palace is to set up a yamen, and raising people has to have something to do, in this case, the princess's mansion is not only a waste of public money, but also a center of intervention in personnel/justice as a matter of course.

Among them, Princess Anle's powerful father's favor is the most exaggerated. She often writes her own edicts and covers the text (as if playing hide and seek!). Then asked his father to sign and seal, and Li Xian actually signed and sealed it with a smile. Later, Princess Anle asked her father to abolish the prince and crown her as the crown princess, although Li Xian did not agree, he did not blame, which further expanded Princess Anle's ambitions.

But even such a good husband and father who loves his wife and spoils his daughter do not get the gratitude of his wife and daughter, on the contrary, after the villain gets his will, he often forgets himself. At the beginning, the emperor often asked Wu Sansi to come to the palace to play Shuanglu with Empress Wei, but he didn't expect to change from "gambling" to "hand-to-hand combat" while playing, and not long after, Li Xian's little wife Shangguan Wan'er (then named Jieyu) also committed adultery with Wu Sansi, which means that Li Xian's big and small wives made him cuckold, and he became a double turtle. (To be continued.) )